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Billington

Joseph Musgrove is my 3x great grandfather. He was born in Kendal, Westmorland about 1791. Joseph married Jane Dewhurst on 8 April 1833 in Blackburn, Lancashire.

I haven’t been able to find him on the 1841 census so far. I have found Jane and their son John living with Jane’s father Lawrence Dewhurst.

On the 1851 census Joseph and Jane are living at Barrow Row, Wiswell, Lancashire (about 3 miles south of Clitheroe) and Joseph is working as a blacksmith.

I have recently found the following article from the Preston Chronicle of Saturday 11 December 1858. Not so much an obituary – more an inquest report.

Preston Chronicle – Saturday 11 December 1858

THE FATAL EFFECTS OF DRINK AT BILLINGTON – On Monday last, an inquest was held at the “Judge Walmsley” public-house, Billington, on the body of a blacksmith, named Joseph Musgrove. Joseph carried on business in Billington, and was, like many men of iron, rather too fond of his beer. On Thursday week, however, he took his beer for the last time, for within half an hour of leaving the “Judge Walmsley” he was a corpse. So soon as he reached home, he sat down in a chair, and partook of some supper which his wife had prepared for him. Whilst he was eating his evening meal, his wife went out, was absent between ten and twenty minutes, and then returned. Not seeing her Joseph, however, in the chair where she had left him, she went up stairs to ascertain if he had gone to bed. She felt on the top of the bed clothes, got hold of his trousers, but could not find him. She then went for a light, determining to see what had become of him. On reaching the bed-room a second time, she saw him laid partly on the floor and partly on a box. His head was under one side of the bedstead. On trying to lift him up she found that he was quite dead. It is supposed that in getting into bed, he slipped, and falling on the floor, dislocated his neck. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with these facts, namely, one of “Accidental death”.

When he died Joseph was about 67 years old.

I feel quite sad now knowing the circumstances of his death. Having been out for a drink after what was presumably a hard day in the blacksmith forge Joseph’s life ends so tragically.